“Leave
the light on please,” says the child, “I’m scared of
the dark.” Perhaps the most common emotion expressed by little children
is fear. Long before they become comfortable articulating emotions like
happiness, excitement, and sadness, small children speak of fear.

Though
we speak of it less as we grow up, we feel it just as acutely. Just ask
the adult who has been invited to give a speech before a large gathering.
People fear starting a conversation with strangers, harmless insects and
all sorts of other things.

To be
sure, there is healthy fear that keeps us from doing dumb and dangerous
things, but what about the fears we have for harmless things? Or for those
things that may truly be threatening, but which we are capable of overcoming?
It is worthwhile defeating fears that hold us back. Though about 10,000
books on dealing with fears and phobias have been published, I find that
I need only one.

Let’s
glance at Deuteronomy, the book that records Moses’ final speech
as he attempts to strengthen Israel and help them surmount their own fears
about conquering the Promised Land.

The
first verse of Deuteronomy provides geographic coordinates describing
where this major address took place.

These
are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan…
- (Deuteronomy 1:1)

Verses
2 and 3 then provide time coordinates, describing exactly when this happened.

…and
it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month…
-(Deuteronomy 1:2-3)

And
in a perfectly logical sequel, the fifth verse reads:

On
this side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this
Torah, saying. -(Deuteronomy 1:5)

However,
verse 4 interrupts the narrative in a most perplexing way:

After
he killed Sichon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og
the king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth Edrei. -(Deuteronomy 1:4)

Huh?
Moses vanquished many enemies during the previous forty years. Why mention
just these two obscure rascals, Sichon and Og?

Sichon
and Og are described as giants. Scripture uses seven nouns to name giants:
refaim, eymim, giborim, zamzumim, anakim, avim and nefilim. We
are meant to notice they are heavily concentrated in the book of Deuteronomy.
Though briefly mentioned in some other books like Genesis and Joshua,
no book of the Bible contains the same number of references to giants
as the book of Deuteronomy.

These
are not massive men of grotesque proportions such as we imagine Goliath
to have been. While Goliath stood over six cubits tall, none of these
terms for giant is used in describing his life and death in I Samuel 17.
The words for giant refer Biblically to those people, phenomena and circumstances
that scare us, though with fortitude we could dispatch them. Sichon and
Og were formidable foes mainly on account of our own faintheartedness.

In order
to strengthen Israel for the forthcoming challenges they will face without
him, and for those that still exist until the present time, Moses reviews
the encounters with the seven giants on the road from Sinai to the River
Jordan. Here is one example:

Where
can we go? Our brothers discouraged us saying, ‘The people are bigger
and taller than us; the cities are great and fortified to heaven; and
furthermore we saw the sons of the Anakim there.’ Then I said to
you, ‘Fear not; don’t be afraid of them.’ -(Deuteronomy
1:28-29)

In this
fifth book of the Torah, Moses teaches the three steps for dealing with
fears.

•
He lists all the frightening phenomena.• He characterizes each one with the appropriate
term.• He proves their vulnerability by mentioning that
he himself slew Sichon and Og.

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Moses’
three steps serve us all well. Identify paralyzing fears. Analyze what
about them frightens. Recognize their vulnerability to action and proceed
to act.

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Rabbi Daniel Lapin, known world-wide
as America's Rabbi, is a noted rabbinic scholar, best-selling author and
host of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin Show on San Francisco’s KSFO. He
is one of America’s most eloquent speakers and his ability to extract
life principles from the Bible and transmit them in an entertaining manner
has brought countless numbers of Jews and Christians closer to their respective
faiths. In 2007 Newsweek magazine included him in its list of America’s
fifty most influential rabbis.